Striving for the life more abundant

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A Mental Health Day?

Happy first official day of spring! Thank goodness the temps were actually spring-like instead of another polar vortex! Last night, little one woke up and threw up. Yay for 12:30 wake up calls that require a bath and a crib scrub. I put in sick leave via the computer for today and planned to stay home with my ailing child. I did manage to still drag myself to the gym around 5:30 to get a workout in before the Mr. left for work. I knew I’d need to be wide awake and energized to take care of this situation at home all day. Upon rising at the late hour of 7:15, Holdie was ready to G.O.! No sign of illness was present. No fever. No wanting to snuggle. Just that he wanted breakfast and also wanted to know when we were going somewhere preferably outside, I think. We headed off to the park to make the most of our sort-of sick day. I kept him on a bland diet today that consisted primarily of Cheerios, which suited him just fine, thank you very much.

Holden just adores to be outside. He lives for it. No matter the conditions or lack of super exciting stuff out there. He is enamored with the outdoors. I suppose this is fitting since his dada is the same way. Although I’m certainly no wildlife spotter or plant dictionary like the Mr., I do enjoy my outdoor runs, reading outside, and just being in the fresh air period! Holden even called to a bird today and got the bird to call back twice. He was quite pleased. I try to get outside with H several days a week, and I confess many times that he is strapped in the jogging stroller. However, he is now nimble enough on his feet to really stroll on his own. This does bring with it new challenges like keeping him moving in the right directions and stopping him from putting poisonous berries in his mouth (and yes, this happened today). I just finished reading The Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. Excellent book that totally reinforced what I know about the need for the outdoors in all people and especially our little developing kiddos. Now is the time to get back outdoors and to MAKE those kids get outdoors. He gave many practical suggestions on how to do this and lots of research-based evidence about why this is so crucial for our children’s childhood memories and also their growth and development. Really makes you think! So, I’ve renewed my commitment to letting H explore outdoors even if that means “inconveniencing” me or giving me a slight heart attack when he’s heading for the “DUCKS MOMMY!” in the cypress pond.